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Chapter 2: The Tower of the Spirit

The spirit has an impregnable tower which no danger can disturb as long as the tower is guarded by the invisible Protector who acts unconsciously, and whose actions go astray when they become deliberate, reflexive and intentional.The unconsciousness and entire sincerity of Tao are disturbed by any effort at self-conscious demonstration. All such demonstrations are lies.When one displays himself in this ambiguous way, the world storms in and imprisons him.

He is no longer protected by the sincerity of Tao.Each new act is a new failure. If his acts are done in public, in broad daylight, he will be punished by men. If they are done in private and in secret, he will be punished by spirits.Let each one understand the meaning of sincerity and guard against display.He will be at peace with men and spirits and will act rightly, unseen, in his own solitude, in the tower of his spirit.

Only man is in suffering. Suffering exists nowhere else than in the heart of man. The whole of nature is joyous; the whole of nature is always celebrating without any fear, without any anxiety. Existence goes on existing, but man is a problem. Why is this so? And every man is a problem. If only a few were problems we could call them ill, abnormal, but just the contrary is the case - only a few are not problems. Rarely is there a man like Buddha, Jesus, or Chuang Tzu - one who is at home, whose life is an ecstasy and not a suffering and an anxiety. Otherwise everybody lives in suffering and in hell.

Somewhere man has gone wrong - not any particular man, but human society as such has gone wrong, and this has gone to the roots. Whenever a child is born the society immediately starts changing the child to the abnormal pattern - the unnatural pattern through which everybody else is suffering. Psychologists have been trying to probe deeply into the mystery of where a child goes wrong and they have stumbled upon the age of four. Somewhere near that age the child becomes part of society; somewhere around that age he is no longer natural. Before the age of four he is still part of the great world of trees, flowers, birds and animals; before the age of four he is still wild. Then he is domesticated; then the society takes over. Then he lives according to rules, morality, right and wrong; he is no longer total. Then everything is divided. Before he moves he has to decide deliberately how to move, what to do, and what not to do. The ‘ought’ has entered and that ‘ought’ is the disease. Discrimination has come in. Now the child is no longer part of the divine - he has fallen from that grace.

Try to understand: this is the meaning of the biblical story of Adam’s fall. Before he ate from the tree of knowledge he was natural, he lived in the Garden of Eden. That Garden of Eden is here; these trees are still living in it; these animals are still part of it; the sun and moon and stars are still moving in it.

Here and now is the Garden of Eden - but you are out of it. Why was Adam turned out? He ate the fruit of knowledge. And at the age of four every Adam and every Eve are turned out again.